Enfilade

This Thursday at Yale:

Tim Clayton | The Limits of Free Speech: Gillray, the Royals, and Censorship
Yale University, New Haven, 9 May 2024, 3.30pm

Organized by the Lewis Walpole Library

Lecture and a panel discussion with contemporary British cartoonists Martin Rowson and Steve Bell

For a decade between 1785 and 1795 George III and Queen Charlotte were the most prominent faces in Gillray’s satire, and the scandalous love lives of their children added piquancy to a print culture that was distinctly libertine in tone. But the license of printsellers provoked a backlash from the conservative wing of the establishment, especially after the French Revolution, and in late 1795 it became illegal to caricature the King. It is often claimed that caricaturists were immune to legal action, but some printsellers were punished and many prints were altered, suppressed or destroyed at this time. This talk will address some of the liberties that caricaturists took and some of the penalties they came to face as they tested the extent of the freedom of the press—a burning issue then that remains highly relevant today.

The lecture will be followed by a panel discussion between Tim Clayton and contemporary British cartoonists Martin Rowson and Steve Bell.

More information is available here»